paragraph — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
§ 3. On the Cessation of Dispensation.
A dispensation already granted can cease: a. by revocation of the one dispensing; b. by cessation of the cause; c. by renunciation of the one dispensed; d. by the death of the one granting.
188. By revocation of the one dispensing. a. He who has dispensed by proper power can validly revoke the dispensation even without a just cause: for the obligation which he removed by dispensing he can always again validly impose.
A dispensation by which, by a single act, an incapacity or impediment, e.g. an irregularity or an impediment of marriage, is wholly removed, if once granted absolutely, cannot be revoked.
He who has dispensed by vicarious power can revoke the dispensation from a just cause; without a just cause the revocation is invalid: for he who dispenses by vicarious power, just as he can grant dispensation only according to the will of the superior, so also can revoke dispensation only according to the will of the same; but revocation without a just cause is judged to be against his will.
A dispensation in a vow once absolutely granted can validly be revoked by no superior.
b. For licitly revoking a dispensation a just cause is always required; nevertheless a revocation made without a just cause does not exceed venial fault.
189. By cessation of the cause. A twofold case must be distinguished:
If the motive cause ceases totally before the concession of the dispensation, the dispensation is not valid.
If the motive cause ceases totally after the concession but before at least the complete use of the dispensation, a distinction must be made. If the superior intends to dispense absolutely, the dispensation does not cease; but if the superior intends to dispense under the condition: if the cause endures, the dispensation ceases. To discern whether the superior dispensed absolutely or under condition, authors hand down this rule.1
Let Bertha be an example in this question, who seeks dispensation from a vow of chastity for contracting marriage from a twofold cause: that conceived offspring may be legitimized, and that Bertha's aged mother may be more easily supported. Now imagine that either the mother or the offspring, or both, have died before the marriage has been contracted. - A cleric who has received dispensation from the title of ordination on account of poverty remains dispensed, even if before ordination a rich inheritance comes to him. - Gaius has been dispensed on account of illness from the recitation of the office and from the Lenten fast; now imagine that the illness has entirely ceased during Lent.
It is required, however, that the cause certainly have ceased; therefore he who has been dispensed from abstinence or from the divine office on account of infirmity can use the dispensation until he has perfectly recovered.
a. If a dispensation has a successive effect, as in the law of abstinence, in the law of reciting the divine office, when the cause ceases the dispensation ceases, since the superior cannot be supposed to wish to dispense without cause.
b. If a dispensation has an effect wholly at once, as in irregularities, in impediments of marriage, when the cause ceases the dispensation does not cease, because the law once removed through dispensation cannot revive except through the will of the legislator; but no indication of this will can be assigned.
a. There are some who except this case: if someone obtained dispensation from a vow of chastity so that he could enter marriage for legitimizing offspring, and the offspring dies before the marriage; for if the legitimation of offspring is the sole cause of the dispensation, marriage cannot licitly be entered unless dependently upon that cause existing at the time of the marriage.2 But others judge that the dispensation is valid even in this case: for even if the offspring dies after the dispensation has been made, nevertheless the impediment or obligation of the vow once removed does not revive.3
b. If the cause and the use of the dispensation cease at the same time, e.g. if someone was dispensed from a vow of chastity so that he could enter marriage for legitimizing offspring, and a little after the marriage has been entered the other party dies, he can enter another marriage, unless the dispensation was given for one marriage only: for if the dispensation was made without limit, through it the obligation of the vow is simply removed, and with that removed nothing stands in the way of a further marriage.
1 Cf. Suarez, De leg. l. 6. c. 20. n. 18.
2 Lehmkuhl II. n. 173.
3 Laymann l. 1. tr. 4. c. 22. n. 15.
190. By renunciation of the one dispensed. a. Anyone can renounce a dispensation made, unless the renunciation falls to the damage of others; but in order that the dispensation granted may cease through renunciation, it must become known to the superior and be accepted by him: for the obligation removed through the will of the superior cannot arise anew except through the will of the same superior. b. Non-use of a dispensation of itself is not a sign of renunciation: for non-use can exist together with the will of using the dispensation afterward; therefore he who has been dispensed from fasting or from the divine office can use the dispensation, even if after the dispensation has already been obtained he has for some time recited the office or fasted.
Nor is a contrary act of itself a sign of renunciation; thus if someone dispensed for entering marriage with Bertha marries Sempronia, by this very fact he does not renounce the accepted dispensation.
191. By the death of the one dispensing a dispensation then alone ceases if it was granted with this or a similar clause: at our discretion or until it shall please us, because by the death of the one granting every good pleasure and discretion of his ceases; but it does not cease if it was given absolutely or with this or a similar clause: until it is revoked, because it is a grace made; but a grace made does not expire by the death of the one granting, even if it has not yet been mandated for execution, unless something else is established from the terms of the concession.
Concerning the formula at our good pleasure, however, it must be noted that it is often employed as equivalent to the formula until revocation, and in this sense the S. C. of Bishops and Regulars, 19 June 1866, decided in a particular case that faculties given under this formula did not cease by the death of the bishop granting them.1
Whether it is lawful to use a dispensation outside the diocese. It is not lawful to use a dispensation which has been granted in a common law by a general indult for the whole diocese: for this, equally as a common precept, is territorial. But a particular dispensation which has been granted to an individual person from a special cause can be used everywhere on earth, because it inheres in the person to whom it has been granted and accompanies him.
1 Cf. Ballerini-Palmieri V. n. 355.